MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Humanity will be able to close the gender gap across politics, economics, health and education in 99.5 years, if the current trajectory persists, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020.
Compared to 2018, the figure declined from 108 years.
According to the report, "this year’s improvement can largely be ascribed to a significant increase in the number of women in politics". Thus, "the political gender gap will take 95 years to close, compared to 107 years last year. Worldwide in 2019, women now hold 25.2% of parliamentary lower-house seats and 21.2% of ministerial positions, compared to 24.1% and 19% respectively last year", the report said.
Meanwhile, economic gender gap will take 257 years to close, compared to 202 years last year, the study said. "Women have been hit by a triple whammy: first, they are more highly represented in many of the roles that have been hit hardest by automation, for example, retail and white-collar clerical roles," the report said. At the same time, "not enough women are entering those professions - often but not exclusively technology-driven - where wage growth has been the most pronounced". As a result, women "often find themselves in middle-low wage categories that have been stagnant since the financial crisis 10 years ago," according to the report.
Countries leading the way to gender parity include Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Nicaragua. At the same time, Russia ranked 81st out of 153rd, while in 2018 it ranked 75th.